A new fan I met today who said she loved thrillers with a difference, asked me why I used my obviously female name and not initials. She thought I would gain more credibility as A M Morton than Alison Morton as I would sound like a man. I gave a stock answer and buried my feminist hackles. But it’s an honest question from a member of the reading public.

Why J K Rowling and not Joanne Rowling?
M C Beaton and not Marion Beaton?
P D James and not Phyllis James?

But what about Sara Paretsky, Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, Lindsey Davis, Elizabeth George? And C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, P.G. Wodehouse, C.S. Forester, C J Sansom, and J D Salinger – are they perceived as any more masculine because they use initials?

It’s something I thought about when I started writing. Would it sell more books if my gender was hidden? But would it be deceptive and possibly annoy potential buyers when they ‘found out’? I’d always been known as ‘Alison Morton’ and couldn’t quite see myself as a rather remote ‘A M Morton’.

The old idea that men don’t read books written by women doesn’t seem to hold so much water – at least, I’ve found that to be the case with INCEPTIO even though the protagonist is a strong female character and the setting a feminised, modern version of a Roman society.

This may be a sweeping generalisation and I’m prepared to be shot down, but reading around this subject on the forums and readers’ groups, one thing seems to stand out (if I may phrase it that way): many male readers express an absolute dread of the ‘R’ word – romance, even if it’s a minor part in the story or  written in a matter of fact, non-emotional way. That’s a shame: emotional relationships are the things that bind people together and to miss this dimension out of any genre of book subtracts some of the essential human substance from the story.

Do you pick up books with initials rather than a full female name?
Do you get annoyed to find out the initials disguise gender?

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out.

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